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Chuck Chiang: Beijing courts Vancouver’s overseas Chinese

Vancouver’s large and vibrant Chinese community is increasingly seen as a source of overseas economic and emotional support for the Beijing government.

Photograph by: Arlen Redekop
, PNG

VANCOUVER — Vancouver’s reputation as being home to a large and growing overseas Chinese community appears to have caught the attention of the government in Beijing.

Last month, Qiu Yuanping, the director of the Overseas Chinese Affairs Office (part of the State Council, China’s central administrative branch), made a rare visit to Vancouver as part of a whirlwind, week-long North American tour. Although the Vancouver portion of Qiu’s tour lasted only a day, the fact that she visited at all — the first time someone in her position has done so — indicates Vancouver is more than ever on Beijing’s radar.

Qiu’s visit on Feb. 19 was closely reported by most of the Chinese-language media in the Lower Mainland. Her itinerary (which also included a quick jaunt over to Victoria the following day) was the usual mix of meetings with Chinese community representatives, local government officials and media.

But among the various events and appearances, a dominant theme — education — emerged. And it carried a recruitment component.

Qiu and Liu Fei, China’s consul-general in Vancouver, made stops at a scholarship presentation and at a $25,000 donation to the Chinese Cultural Centre of Greater Vancouver.

The scholarship being presented was a partnership between the Canadian Fujianese Friendship Association (representing Chinese-Canadians who emigrated from the southeastern province of Fujian) and local non-profit group SUCCESS. It was awarded to 105 international students from both Chinese and non-Chinese backgrounds this year.

Meanwhile, part of the $25,000 donated to the cultural centre was dedicated to educational programs aimed at improving Chinese language skills among Chinese-Canadians.

Qiu said that, while the main purpose of her visit was to gain a better understanding of the overseas Chinese community in Vancouver, it was also to give an opportunity for the next generation of Chinese-Canadians to “serve their country.”

The natural question, then, would be to which country she was referring.

Qiu explained that students receiving the Vancouver scholarship should become “the pillars of a new global, international society, no matter where they live,” and she hoped Chinese-Canadian students could benefit both their new homeland and their nation of origin.

But part of the message was that, if they choose to return to China to further their careers, Beijing’s door is open. Qiu said that part of Chinese President Xi Jinping’s “China Dream” platform involves the happiness of Chinese people everywhere, and if they want to contribute “to their homeland,” they are welcome — and it is Beijing’s policy to make sure they have a clear path to do so.

Overseas Chinese communities have long been a historic hotbed of influence and human capital for China — they were in many ways the driving force behind the overthrow of the imperial Qing Dynasty in 1912. And with an estimated global population of more than 50 million as of 2012, they continue to play a role in the economic and social development of their ancestral homeland.

In Vancouver, where many of the Chinese immigrants have arrived in the past three decades, the Chinese-Canadian community remains fairly closely tied to their cultural identity, and continues to be proud of that heritage — although the degree that individuals identify with Beijing fluctuates wildly (especially for those from Hong Kong and Taiwan).

So will Beijing’s call to encourage Chinese-Canadians, especially those who benefited from local Chinese educational programs, to seek economic opportunities in China be answered? One would have to be willing to part with Canada’s high standard of living, pristine environment and relative lack of bureaucratic red tape to make the leap.

But with Canadian federal and provincial governments increasingly orienting their economies toward the Chinese market, it is an opportunity being considered by more and more Chinese-Canadians.

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